Drinking Liberally Lawrence Chapter Blog

Hi. I hope your holiday was swell. We'll be back at Free State Tuesday night from 8 until 10. Come tell us how your holidays were and share your thoughts about the upcoming changing of the guard! 14 days and counting! Help us plan something special for the 20th's DL.

Ask for us at the front desk.

Phil

Hi Folks. We won't be meeting tonight or next week. Let's take a break for the holidays, your chance to be out and about and circulating!

We'll be picking back up in January. There won't be an email next week.

Here's some interesting reading to keep up with the folks at Living Liberally (which is now the front for drinking liberally).

http://livingliberally.org/

It has been a great year with incredible potential for the new year. Keep pushing!

Have a great holiday!

Phil

Hi Folks. Drink liberally tonight. Cold? Snow? Oh well. We'll be at Free State from about 8 until 10.

Here's a little followup from last week, and then the topic of the day.

This from Dailykos.com:

Midday open thread
by kos
Mon Dec 15, 2008 at 12:38:29 PM PST

* An email from a major media outlet:

Dear Mr. Moulitsas:

I work for XXX. A correspondent within the Washington DC bureau who focuses on defense policies has asked me to search for Obama supporters who are somewhat disappointed by his policy on issues such as the Iraq War.

I was wondering if you might be one such individual because as we know, Obama has continued to be vague about pulling troops out of Iraq and showed that ambiguity by having Secretary Gates on the job. Please contact me if you are interested in an interview.

If there is such an outcry from Obama supporters, shouldn't it be easy to find such people? Instead, media organizations look to manufacture fake controversies where none apparently exist.

And on to shoes! In case you missed it, video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6KvvgCtbOg

And reaction from Iraqis to the alleged thrower:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783608.stm
"Thousands of Iraqis have demanded the release of a local TV reporter who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush at a Baghdad news conference."

(Thanks to Retta for the shoe links)

Ask for us at the front desk.

Phil

Greetings People

We'll be at Free State tonight from about 8 until 10. Ask for us at the front desk. Stay warm and drive carefully. The weather won't be too bad, it is always colder in Minnesota!

There's been a couple good articles on dailykos (I really like reading www.dailykos.com). Here's a link to a story from yesterday about how the media incorrectly portrays progressives as being alienated by Obama's recent policy directions. This is a good long article:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/8/22946/2517/660/670562

Here's an excerpt:
"Wait, when did progressive 'critics', and online activists, become synonymous with the 'left wing of the Party?' When did we turn into Teh Angry Left?

And what 'critics' is he talking about, exactly, beyond the ever-elusive 'some people'? Who's all up in arms? Over which appointments? Has the blogosphere lost its mind over Clinton, or Geithner, or Brennan or even Gates? I must have missed it."

(What is up with 'Teh', I see that in a lot of places, come tonight if you know and share it with us -- Phil)

And here's another one about the holes in the auto bailout and the spineless democratic congress:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/9/6531/57154/246/670976

The Art Of The Compromise
by BarbinMD
Tue Dec 09, 2008 at 09:40:03 AM PST
Check out these excerpts from an article on the proposed bailout for the auto industry...and then shoot me.

Democrats bent to the will of the president on several key demands, most notably in agreeing that the emergency funding would be drawn from an existing loan program aimed at promoting fuel-efficient technologies.

Democrats had hoped to take the money from the Treasury's $700 billion financial rescue program, but the White House objected. A breakthrough came Friday, when Pelosi dropped her opposition...

The Democratic proposal makes no provisions to replenish the loan fund, as Pelosi had hoped.

Democrats flirted with the idea of naming a seven-member board to oversee the auto bailout but decided instead to have the president name an individual, as Bush had suggested.

Democrats agreed to do whatever George Bush wants in perpetuity.

Okay, I made the last one up. (article ends here)

Ask for us at the front desk.

Phil

::

Hi All. Come out tonight and join us. We'll be at Free State from about 8 until 10. Ask for us at the front desk.

Hey have you noticed the President-Elect doesn't call on Fox News at his press conferences?

http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/obama-continues-shun-fox-news

See you tonight!

Phil

Tuesday December 2nd FSB 8 to 10 p.m.

Hey. Tuesday again. What, 56 days to go? Hoo Ray. We'll be at Free State from about 8 until 10. I just can't give it up.

And another thing. It is now 7.7 trillion dollars for the bailout. Why another bank but not the Auto Companies? Is it the Union?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=arEE1iClqDrk

or http://tinyurl.com/6qxbgw for the same link.

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

Read more at the link above.

Ask for us at the front desk!

Phil

Hi Folks. Another Tuesday is right around the corner. Join us for another fine evening at the Free State. Ask for us at the front desk. We'll be there from about 8 until 10. We have been enjoying the woop-tee-doo surrounding regime change.

This week's blurb is provided by Bob Gent:

Two days before the election, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, McCain repeated his old line welcoming "Republicans, independents, Democrats, libertarians, and vegetarians" to his cause. Yet most of his old coalition had already deserted him. Even the voters who turned out at his rallies were often not there to see him: they had come for Sarah Palin. During joint events, which drew thousands more people than his solo appearances, she usually received louder cheers than he did. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, a few weeks ago, many in the crowd filed out after Palin introduced McCain, while he was starting his stump speech. On the day before the election, she and McCain campaigned separately: about five hundred people attended McCain's rally in Tampa, Florida; an estimated seventeen thousand came to see Palin in Jefferson City, Missouri. "She's like the plant in 'Little Shop of Horrors,'" McCain's friend Bob Kerrey said. "She's devouring him."
From "The Fall" by David Grann in The New Yorker, November 14th issue

Hi Folks. It was a good week. Come join us tonight at Free State. We'll be there from 8 until 10. Ask for us at the front desk.

Here is a little blurb from daily KOS about a perceived trend for the republicans. Even George Will mentioned on one of those Sunday talking head shows that they run a risk of staying a regional party.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

It's hard not to look at the map -- particularly in the House -- and not view the GOP as a regional party right now. If it weren’t for the party's relative strength in the South, the party would be in even worse shape.

Daily Kos R2K poll (final):
..............McCain Obama

NORTHEAST...37...61
SOUTH..........58...38
MIDWEST......44...54
WEST............42...54

Phil

Greetings folks. Today is the day we have been waiting for. We'll be at Free State from 8 to 10. Come on out and join us. Get a bite to eat. Monitor election results. Then at 10 we'll head over to Abe and Jake's and watch more election results.

Go Vote!

Ask for us at the front desk.

Phil

We'll be at Free State this Tuesday night from 8 until 10. Ask for us at the front desk.

Here is part of Barack Obama's speech from today in Ohio:

In this election, we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another and make us afraid of one another. The stakes are too high to divide us by class and region and background; by who we are or what we believe.

Because despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere else – we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots. There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it; patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.

It won’t be easy, Ohio. It won’t be quick. But you and I know that it is time to come together and change this country. Some of you may be cynical and fed up with politics. A lot of you may be disappointed and even angry with your leaders. You have every right to be. But despite all of this, I ask of you what has been asked of Americans throughout our history.

I ask you to believe – not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.

I know this change is possible. Because I have seen it over the last twenty-one months. Because in this campaign, I have had the privilege to witness what is best in America.

I’ve seen it in lines of voters that stretched around schools and churches; in the young people who cast their ballot for the first time, and those not so young folks who got involved again after a very long time. I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see their friends lose their jobs; in the neighbors who take a stranger in when the floodwaters rise; in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb. I’ve seen it in the faces of the men and women I’ve met at countless rallies and town halls across the country, men and women who speak of their struggles but also of their hopes and dreams.

I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale. Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.

In her email, Robyn wrote, "I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us. When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder."

Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead. If we’re willing to work for it. If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts. If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.

Hope! That’s what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough. What led them to say, "Maybe I can’t go to college, but if I save a little bit each week my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but if I work really hard my child can open one of her own." It’s what led immigrants from distant lands to come to these shores against great odds and carve a new life for their families in America; what led those who couldn’t vote to march and organize and stand for freedom; that led them to cry out, "It may look dark tonight, but if I hold on to hope, tomorrow will be brighter."

That’s what this election is about. That is the choice we face right now.

Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.

In one week, we can choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up.

In one week, we can choose to invest in health care for our families, and education for our kids, and renewable energy for our future.

In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo.

In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history.

That’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting for. And if in this last week, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and talk to your neighbors, and convince your friends; if you will stand with me, and fight with me, and give me your vote, then I promise you this – we will not just win Ohio, we will not just win this election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.